Can We (Or Should We) Teach Children Philosophy? With Jana Mohr Lone

Listen to the Full Episode:

Welcome to the latest episode of THINK BIGGER, THINK BETTER.  On today’s show, I welcome Jana Mohr Lone of the Center for Philosophy for Children. I’m excited to have Jana on the show today, not just because she has done something I’ve always wanted to do – write a philosophy book for children – but also because we discovered that we’re “old” {ahem} grade school chums!

Jana Mohr Lone is the director and founder of the University of Washington’s Center for Philosophy for Children. The Center brings philosophers and students trained in philosophy into K-12 public school classrooms to facilitate philosophy classes. Jana is also the author of The Philosophical Child, which explores ways that parents and other adults can stimulate philosophical conversations about children’s questions.

From ethics to the secrets of the universe, philosophy asks some cool questions – the big questions in life.  While it never produces definitive answers, the process of thinking about and engaging with the questions is what makes philosophy what it is.

The questions we tackle today are: “Do you have to be a grownup to study those questions? Can kids think about them? Should kids think about them?” Plug in and listen as we discuss how teaching kids philosophy could impact the entire world.

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• What philosophy is and why it matters.
• Why Jana founded the Center for Philosophy for Children.
• Can and should kids learn to have philosophical conversations?
• How teaching philosophy to all children and young adults can impact the world.
• Jana’s suggested books for teens or younger children.
• The best ways of teaching philosophy to children and from what age should we start.
• The challenge with philosophy finding its way to our curricula.

Featured on the Show:

• The Philosophy of Childhood by Gareth Matthews
• The Frog and Toad Collection by Arnold Lobel
• The Philosophical Child by Jana Mohr
• Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder and‎ Paulette Moller
• What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy by Thomas Nagel
• The Velveteen Rabbit: Or, How Toys Become Real by Margery Williams and Liz Encarnacion
• PLATO – Organization that advocates and supports introducing philosophy to children and youth through programs, resource-sharing, and the development of a national network in pre-college philosophy
• PLATO’s Resource Library: BOOKS
• Center for Philosophy for Children

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